Two landlords have been slapped with fines totalling £135,000 for failing to maintain and licence privately rented homes.

The landlords were lampooned by a judge for failing to provide basic safety measures, such as fire alarms, and hygienic conditions.

At a hearing at Thames Magistrates’ Court on Monday, February 1, Mohammed Bhatti, aka Mohammed Muqeem Amin, sole director of agents Property Ladder London Ltd, pleaded guilty to 12 charges in relation to breaches of management regulations at a number of properties on High Road, Leyton, as well as failing to licence one of the homes.

During inspections of the properties, council officers discovered serious issues including a lack of fire alarms, dangerous sockets, and blocked drains.

Showers and sinks were said to be “cracked and filthy”, and access to the top-floor flat was only possible via a dangerous staircase. Inspectors described it as one of the worst examples they had come across.

The Judge expressed particular concern about the lack of fire alarms and fire doors, highlighting concerns by the London Fire Brigade which led to the initial inspection, and imposed £55,0000 in fines for the breach of management regs and failure to provide documents, based on £5,000 per offence.

An additional fine of £20,000 for the failure to licence the top-floor flat, added to £6,949.51 in prosecution costs with a £190 victim surcharge, means the 70-year-old landlord must pay a total of £82,139.51 within six months.

At a separate hearing on the same day, Balmick Seegolam, 61, of St Georges Road Leyton, pleaded guilty to three charges in relation to failing to license Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in Canterbury Road and North Birkbeck Road.

After being refused planning permission for an extension at the Canterbury Road address, Seegolam applied for a licence and revealed he already had tenants living there despite it being, in his own words, “small and not in great condition”.

After blaming a previous management agent for the North Birkbeck Road HMOs not being correctly licensed, Mr Seegolam also suggested tenants were at fault for dangerously unhygienic conditions and blocked hallways that could have posed a risk to life in an emergency.

Taking on board Seegolam’s guilty plea, the Court fined him £60,000 - £20,000 for each one of the charges – with costs of £3,366 and a victim surcharge of £190 making a total of £63,556 to be paid by Seegolam within three months.

Summing up in Seegolam’s case, the Judge said: “You fell well below the expected standard of a reasonable landlord. This is your full-time job; it is therefore imperative that you should be fully aware of the regulations and the licensing regime that you operate under […] You had a previous contact from the local authority which resulted in a civil penalty. You were not ignorant of the regime.”

Cllr Louise Mitchell, cabinet member for housing, said: “Waltham Forest has again demonstrated that we are serious about ensuring tenants in the private rented sector have a safe, decent roof over their head that is correctly licensed. Most landlords are responsible and consider the safety and comfort of their tenants. However, there are a minority who put profit before people’s safety and we make no apologies for taking action against these unscrupulous few.

“If you are offering a property for rent in Waltham Forest, you must find out if you need a license. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

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